


Crunch

by cococape



Category: Original Work
Genre: Blood, Bunnies, Death, Gen, Gore, Horror, Original Short Fiction, POV Second Person, Pet Store, Post-Apocalypse, Short Story, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-12 14:22:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28761735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cococape/pseuds/cococape
Summary: You visit a place that once brought you happiness, but now only provides nightmares.
Kudos: 8





	Crunch

**Author's Note:**

> This is one of my original works! I have a few, and depending on how well this one does I might post the rest of them idk

_ Crunch Crunch Crunch _

The pet store used to be so lively. Customers walking in and out every day, greeting by name the teenagers who were fortunate enough to be employed, whose eyes lit when someone came to ask about an animal in their care or when a child expressed their excitement over getting their first goldfish. Now, what remains is the ghost of that joy—

_ Crunch Crunch _

—and the mirage of the life that once filled it. But now, the shelves are long empty. Shattered glass and shattered dreams. Water flooding the ground, mixing with something else, long gone cold but still thick and wet with something that left a sweet metallic scent lingering in the air.

The door was unlocked. The door contained the last remaining piece of glass yet to be broken. The store could’ve been entered through the nonexistent windows on either side, but chivalry still exists in this world, and it would be rude to enter through means that made one feel like a trespasser. And it wasn’t something to be sought, to feel unwelcome in the place where people went to find happiness.

The little bell above the door clattered, the ball inside desperate to make noise. It wanted to scream in this dangerous world, but someone made the smart decision to not let it. 

They’re probably not here. Probably. Hopefully.

_ Crunch Crunch Crunch _

No rattling air conditioner, no  _ whoosh _ from the vents, just the air as it went in through the nose and out through the mouth. In through the nose, out through the mouth. In through the mouth, out through the nose. 

What’s better? To taste the metal, to let it linger in the back of the mouth for days, or to smell it everywhere?

_ Crunch _

The floor is darker behind the counter, as if the ugly dirt-stained tiles from the front of the store transitioned into a much nicer, flat toned panels at the back. It’s still wet. 

_ Crunch _

Cages on their sides, the bars bent or torn off. Cat carriers with the fabric, the cardboard, and the plastic all ripped to shreds. What could do all of that?

_ Crunch _

“Employees only” reads the sickly coloured sign, the colour of something too commonly seen now. The colour of  _ run, go, save yourself _ . 

_ Crunch Crunch Crunch _

Everything is worse here. Now that the door is open all the way, it’s like a portal to hell was unleashed. The air isn't clean. Isn’t safe. There isn’t just metal in the air anymore, but also the smell of something wild. Something unattended to. Something natural, but it doesn’t feel like it should be.

_ Crunch Crunch Cr un ch _

There’s 4 of them. A white one, a grey one, and two tan coloured ones. Fluff like clouds, small enough to be cupped in two hands. Small ears pointing straight up, tiny snowball-like tails enough to soften the hearts of even the toughest of men.

_ Crunch _

The thing that lies on the ground before them could have been mistaken for a broken mannequin if it weren’t so clearly the source of the dark pool on the ground, the awful smell that fills the air, causing the room to blur. On a right hand, all the fingers are missing along with half a palm. Both legs are amputated at the knees. The neck is seemingly… non existent, like the head and torso are two completely separate entities. Two completely separate  _ things _ .

It’s very possible to see the bones, cut cleanly as if by a butcher’s knife, so distinctly different from the tiny bumps made into the meat  that the thought that whatever did this to him — It — being the same creature seemed almost laughable. Organs of course, were left untouched, left in the same position that it would have been in only a few hours before.

_ C r u n c h _

It’s a mystery how the fur can stay so clean. So pristine, while they continue to eat. Didn’t they once have innocence in their eyes? Now, they light up like fireworks, so much livelier than those of the rest of mankind, and everything that stood in its path.

The carcass lies forgotten, as the five hopped in unison towards their exit. Food’s gone cold, and don’t things taste better when it's warm? Soup, pizza, various meats. Of course, it’s better cooked, but only if the bacteria wiggling inside isn’t harmful.

It’s not worth it to run. It doesn’t hurt to try anyway, out of the pet store into the abandoned road. But they leap farther now, teeth sharper, claws like the hands of death himself. Was it evolution that taught them the best place to puncture flesh, or was it just luck? Are their claws poisoned or were they long and sharp enough to hit something vital, enough to make their victims drop dead?

One trip, one pothole, one unexpected muddy ground hidden in the grass and it’s over. They catch up, landing so you can see their innocent eyes, or hear their tiny squeaks.

They sound like laughter.

_ CRUNCH _

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on twitter @cococapes


End file.
